06/17/2008
Genesis 45:4 - 8 (HCSB) 4Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt. 5And now don’t be worried or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. 6For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. 7God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. 8Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
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Yesterday, we talked about what had happened to Joseph; how he had been sold into slavery and ended up in prison. But God had a purpose in this. Soon Joseph was brought from prison. He was able to interpret the Pharaohs’ dreams about abundance and famine and he was placed as second in command over all of Egypt.
From this position of power, Joseph administered the accumulation of excess in the years of plenty and then rationed out the grain that was in storage during the years of famine. The famine was so great that it even reached into Canaan where Jacob (Israel) was living. The brothers came to Egypt to buy grain and then came a second time. Each time, they came, they did not recognize Joseph and they bowed down to him, just as Joseph’s dreams had predicted. But on the second journey, Joseph revealed himself to them. Then he tells them that he knows that God put him in Egypt not just to preserve Egypt, but his own family as well.
Joseph sends them back to get his father and then the entire family returns to Egypt. They are given the choice land for herding and settle there in peace.
After Jacob dies, his brothers are afraid that Joseph will take revenge on them in their fathers’ absence. But Joseph assures them again, that it was God’s plan, not theirs, that brought him to Egypt.
Genesis 50:19 - 20 (HCSB) 19But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.
As we observed yesterday, we often fail to see the full plan of what God is doing. We may not all be raised to the second in command, but we should always have faith that God has a plan and He will see it through. Our task is to be willing vessels and give him Glory in our afflictions as well as in our greatness.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2008 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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